Sneak peek whats up with The El Camino!

My back is aching and I really can't do too much at the moment for my El Camino. I still have gathered parts little by big and up coming winter I'll be doing some modification to my current out and in look. He are few sneak peek photos:

Whats that bulge doing there?

Is there any other colour than matte black?

Whats with the spokes?

And on the other day we had so much raining in short period that it flooded to our garage. Janne was visiting our garage and took these photos and posted them on our garage's whatsup chat:

You can check his blog about building/restoration his 1972 Chevrolet Camaro SS at: http://jakulepi.blogspot.fi/

It is in Finnish, but I think you can translate it through Google translate. A lot of pictures! Check it out!

Grille off.

Last time I was at the garage I did manage to take off the front bumper and now it was time to take off the grille. First I thought how to take of those fender extensions, I wasn't sure how much I need to disassemble. One is inside engine compartment and three screws are behind headlight bezels. So to reach those three you have to take those headlight bezels off and there you go. There is also two screws lower part of the extensions. I am not sure if you can remove those two screws and a plate when you have front bumper on.

Blue circle is available from inside engine compartment and for those red circles to gain access you have to take those headlight bezels off.

Pretty simple to take of those fender extensions and after both of them are off you can take off those six screws that hold the grille in place, two on each side and two in the middle. I guess I could also do a bit of modification to headlight surroundings since I do have H4 lamps on outer and it's pretty hard to reach now that everything is original, but a bit of cutting I could easily change lamps from inside engine compartment and not the way I am now used to, from the outside way.

I really should have written this right after I did this since I can't remember whole deal now and I missed few pictures, which I haven't re-shoot, since I haven't been in the garage for few weeks now. And I should've have planned more on how to and what to shoot before I pick up the screwdriver. 

Updated 01.02.16 Few corrections and added new picture.

Front bumper off.

I have a better front bumper that came with the car from previous owner as he was starting to do restoration on this El Camino. I took me six years to finally change it. 

And at the same time I could install right kind of turning signal lights. It did came with amber lights as it was manufactured, but due to registration progress in Finland the company that handled whole thing from buying, shipping and registration in here had to change those lenses to clear to pass registration. It's illegal for car to have an amber lights pointing straight ahead that are constantly on as driving lights, turning signal can be amber of course, but because those act as dual purpose it had to be changed to get approved by registration.

 Thigh space and I needed flex head socket to reach out and of course it was really tight and I had to spray some CRC's rust/general lubrication on those bolts.

As the space was tight I could only loosen it less than tenth of the turn. So it took time and few impacts on my knuckles.

One down and three more to go. After all it wasn't that hard, just a bit of time, turning nut off a bit by bit.

Next step in my plan is to take of headlights, grille, hood, radiator, fenders, inner fenders and what else. I have a spare grille, which I have planned painting matte black and I think I am going to paint this one with body colour and black. And friend of mine has a spare cowl induction hood that is reserved to me.

New year and new tricks? Part one.

We have a saying in Finland that is roughly translated: "new year and new tricks". I was at the garage day before yesterday and photographing few things on my El Camino, those things that I have been thinking of addressing this winter. Those are minor things and don't really affect on daily driving, except for one issue: passenger floor mat is wet when raining, but that is that "usual" thing that happens for old El Caminos. Cause of the passenger side floor flooding is either passanger side front window and/or back window on the lower corner under the molding.

Other thing that has been on my to do list is changing the front bumber. It has two dents on that can be straighted out but since I got a straight one that came with the car when I bought it, there's no point to use time and energy on that old one.

And when changing that bumber I can put use those original yellow lenses on,  but there are some issues with that since in Finland you can't have constant yellow lights in front as a parking lights but of course you can have yellow turning signals, but as those are in the same housing that is the problem. I may have to install a switch to deactivate parking lights during inspection.

And while the bumber is off I could change the grille to black one. Straighten the chrome moldings too.

 I bought couple years ago a use grille from Ebay and the plan was to paint that with other colour and install that on and keep the original as original as possible or restore it at some point.

While doing minor cosmetic things I should address that hood misalignment too.

It has been that all this time. Over five years. No hurry with that one since the exterior isn't in the prime shape. It has that ratty muscle car fibe to it. Patina, that you can't paint on. Mismatch of colours.

El Camino's are getting old, there's no way around it. There are so many thing to mention that I need to make a sequel post to this.